The Answer for the World
Psalm 146 (NIV)
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord,
my soul. I will praise the Lord
all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do
not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When
their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their
plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God
of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord
their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea,
and everything in them—he remains faithful forever. He upholds
the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the
Lord loves the righteous. The
Lord watches over the foreigner and
sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the
wicked. The Lord
reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.
The final book of the Psalter
finishes with a series of “Hallelu Yah” psalms in which the entire psalm is
sandwiched between the expressions of praise, “Praise the Lord.” Upon returning to their home land after the
Babylonian exile, the Israelites celebrated their covenant relationship with
this psalm.
It declares that their praise
belongs to God, praise with everything they have and for as long as they have
breath in their being. All the days of
their lives, they will praise the Lord God.
There is no other to place you trust in.
No mortal man regardless of how great can save. When their last breath is gone, all their hopes
and plans, their dreams or schemes, all will come to nothing.
As New Covenant people our hope and
help is still in the Lord. I am afraid
however that much of North American Christendom knows very little of the kind
of praise that the psalmist wrote about here.
Praise and “worship” is often crammed into a small block of our time that we sacrifice for God, and
even at that we watch the clock and can’t wait to get back to our lives. Real Worship
is life and breath and relationship with the Father that cannot help but to
overflow with praise. It is also not limited
to Sunday but includes all the days of my
life.
Our hope and our help come from God
through Jesus Christ, our Savior, our redeemer, our peace, our righteousness,
our provider, our healer. It is in Him
and Him alone.
“Salvation
is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to
mankind by which we must be saved.” A warning and reminder must continuously go out to believers
in this country that man cannot save! The Republican Party cannot save, the
Democratic Party cannot save, neither can any other group that comes on the
scene regardless of their best attempts.
Our help and hope is to be in Jesus Christ alone for He is the only true
foundation and solid rock. Many
Americans are still believing the lie that to be American equates to being
Christian; that this is a Christian Nation.
We are blessed no doubt, and I believe it is largely because of the
Christian foundations and principles with which it was built but those days are
long gone and this Nation is determined that they do not need the God who
blessed them. Now I said we are blessed,
I did not say that we are or were a Christian Nation because we are not nor were we ever a Christian
Nation. Now drop your stones and hear me
out. There has only been one Nation
chosen and set apart as God’s “peculiar people”, the Nation of Israel. All the rest are nations, kingdoms and
peoples to be blessed through God’s special people. There is however a
Spiritual Kingdom to which we belong without geographical and national
borders. A kingdom which will never end. One can be a citizen of this kingdom
regardless of where they live or what nationality they call themselves on this
earth. Nations will rise and nations will fall, kingdoms will rise and fall as
well but the Kingdom of Christ will endure forever.
I know it is popular to post
pictures on facebook of American flags with crosses or red, white and blue
eagles and apply Scriptures like 2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people,
who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive
their sin and will heal their land.” But that verse was not written for
America. Now don’t hear me wrong, I LOVE
MY COUNTY! I am as patriotic as
anyone. I served in the military and
fought in combat. I am permanently and
totally disabled because of it and I WOULD DO IT AGAIN! So again, drop the stones. What I am saying is that this was written for
the Nation of Israel which is a shadow
of the Church (the substance). So as a Christian, a member of Christ’s
Kingdom one can personally and perhaps even collectively as a local body of
believers but not to any secular country of kingdom of this world, no matter
how good the intentions were of the founders.
Our country has chosen her way and it is determined to serve itself in
secular humanism without regard for the Lord. Our primary citizenship must be to the Kingdom
of God, all others will pass away. No
president and no party can save us and their hopes and plans, their dreams or
schemes, will all one day come to nothing.
From verse 5 through verse 9 the
writer paints a beautiful picture of the God who is most worthy to be
praised. Blessed is the one whose help
and hope is found in the God of Jacob, creator of all things, sustainer of all
things and whose faithfulness endures forever.
The God of Jacob is the same God that loves us today and has chosen each
one us for a covenant relationship with Him.
The creator of all things loves you and me personally. Blessed indeed are those who place their hope
in Him. All the “hot topics” of the political world could find their answers in
Him. So many cry out that they are
discriminated against, that they are treated unfairly. The Lord upholds the cause of the
oppressed. Social reform, welfare, and
world hunger are a mess in man’s hands but God gives food to the hungry (Look
at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
(Matthew 6:26)).
How about justice and social problems like people bound in the chains of
addictions of all kinds? The Lord sets the prisoners free. Healthcare?
The Lord gives sight to the blind.
For those burdened with inequality and hardships who can in no wise lift themselves up, the Lord
lifts them up, He is the true mark of justice and righteousness and in Him
there is nothing false. The Lord watches
over the alien in ways that border patrols would never do, in love and
care. Again the government passes laws
and seeks reforms continuously for welfare programs while the Lord sustains the
fatherless and the widow. There is no
corruption in Him and the ways of the wicked are already frustrated.
The Lord reigns forever! Oh that more would place their trust in the
Lord and not in a corrupt and greedy secular institution where the rich and
powerful have their own interest at heart.
The Lord loves! He is love. He is perfect love and he has man’s salvation
as His greatest interest. “For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but will
have eternal life.
My trust is in Him.
Grace to you,
Pastor Tony Garcia
Freedom Church, USA